Shinji and KoS
by PuppySlayer
Summary: Shinji and Knights of Sidonia. At the end of 2.0, the gaunas consumed Shinji and shogouki. Years later, he is found by Sidonia and join their struggle. Now with 20 percent more tentacle action and 56 percent more mecha face punching.
1. Chapter 1

Just to explain the setup a little; this takes place at Sidonia manga, just a little after they recruited Teruru, and they haven't started getting ready for the war with the Large Mass Union ship. For NGE, just imagine at the end of 2.0, the gauna invaded earth, Shinji called upon the ceremony to rescue Rei from being consumed and that's where his story ends and begin. If I get to write until that far to explain everything, then great, if not, just enjoy the ride first…

….

It was just another day in the space of Lem system….

"What is the sum of a man, but his awesome deeds, his privilege to use the latest Guardian techs and his home; warmed with the flesh of women, transsexuals and alien tentacle."

"Tsuuruchi, youre on team comm. Keep your loser thoughts to yourself."

"Yess ma'am. Zipping my mouth, Squad leader Samari." Tsuuruchi said as he drew a finger across his visor where his lip was.

"If I were to go out today in glorious battle, would you hold my body to your bosom tightly, and fulfill the last wishes of your subordinate?"

"I would put a shell through your face before you get eaten by a Gauna. That's all I promise. Now shut the hell up."

Sixteen Guardian, making up four squads plus the special duo Nagate and Tsumugi flew towards the small asteroid of 2km wide. A single Gauna true body was propelling the rock towards Sidonia. The plan was simple, two squads would burrow nukes into the asteroid while the other two provide covering fire. When the Gauna body is revealed the Guardians will take it out through conventional methods.

Commander Aide Yuhata stared at the strategic display longingly. If only she could be out there with Nagate…and Izana. The success rate of this mission was above ninety percent, calculated through information collected from previous battles and all known Gauna factors. She wouldn't rely on numbers alone, those gauna's occasionally have a good surprise. If the asteroid has a Benisuzume class, or two, the numbers given by the mainframe would go down to single digit.

"Tanikaze, Tsumugi, maintain at maximum firing range." Yuhata called out.

"But Tanikaze, if the Gauna decided to show itself, someone might get hurt." Tsumugi voiced her concern only to her partner.

Tsumugori fired its reverse thruster as it gets into position. "The new pilots need the actual experience. There is no better teacher. Besides, Samari and other senior pilots are there to give orders."

"I see… you sure think highly of Samari don't you?" Tsumugi playfully flicked her tail at the mecha's behind.

It was time like this when full battlefield awareness has its pros, or cons, depending on who you asked. The pilots on reserve watching the live battle feed went 'awww'. Izana should be numb by now, with these random display of affection between Nagate and his chimera partner. Her mechanical arm curled into a death grip for a moment before a stream of images sent directly to her made her cautious.

" Movement detected within the asteroid body. The drones are mapping out the subterranean now. Lots of hiding places for ambush."

"Copy that, Izana." Samari replied.

Two teams went into the opposing hemisphere with the objective of drilling and planting nuke into the asteroid, but seeing that the huge rock was actually quite cavernous Tsuuruchi had the great idea of just doing some space caving and dropping the nuke into the middle of it.

"Hey you should check this out, the cave system is just wide enough for a Guardian to fly through. You might think the solo gauna could be a guardian type but that's like too much coincidence right? I mean, whats the chance of me flying right into Benisuzume type and getting stab in the face? But before that, I might get to make out with a hot placenta in my cockpit."

Nagate coughed and steadied his mech as his machine was prodded by a really strong tail.

"What does Tsuuruchi meant by 'make out' and 'just like Tanikaze'? Are you alright, you're coughing quite badly."

"Tsumugi, focus on the mission please. Ignore the mindless talk of Tsuuruchi." Yuhata would love to see Nagate getting slammed on the floor until his face caved in but she got to step in. He's the only reliable ace around.

Tsuruuchi moved a few hundred meters deep when he noticed some weird movement on his sensors. The true body stayed motionless in the center, still protected by layers of rock and minerals. It could be just some tentacle. He packed the railgun away and took out the submachinegun, a close quarter weapon proven by the ace Tanikaze.

"Gyahhhhh!" A female voice screamed over the comms.

One of the Honoka girls vital display popped on his HUD and turned into an X. Tanikaze checked her last known position dissappearing into the cave, very close to Tsuuruchi current position.

"I'm going to get her, Tsuuruchi out." The veteran pilot really wanted to tell his teammate how badass he sounded. He decided to save it for later when he rescued the chick.

Three more frame dissappeared into the cave network in quick succession. Izana issued a full blown alert to all teams. All pilots saw blurred image of a Guardian sized creature taking one of their own. They could be dealing with more than one Guardian type gauna here. The worst part is that the Gauna is partial cloaked from her sensors, revealing itself only to visual contact.

"Tanikaze, our friends are not prepared to deal with Benizusume type. We need to join the fight too." Tsumugi pulled on her partner's arm while she voiced her concern.

"Be patient Tsumugi, Yuhata ordered us to support from distance. We must not disobey her. Beside we still do not know whats the Gauna capable of." Before he knew Tsumugi, Nagate would be the first rushing headlong to save his friends. What made him hesitated this time, he wonders.

The shockwave from Tsumugi speeding towards the asteroid pushed Nagate's airframe aside. Was he ever so reckless too?

…

Tsuuruchi floated gently into the caves, towards the position where all the last known position converged. If it's a boss type Gauna waiting for him there, he's in way over his head. He always had more balls than skills.

He saw the signature of five non operational frames ahead of him. The Gauna successfully duplicated the ID signal of Guardians before, it wouldn't be a surprise if its an ambush lying ahead. He pushed on anyway, moving his frame stealthly on instinct.

His sensor beeped again, right in front of him. No gauna presence, just movement. Tsuuruchi emptied his SMG into the darkness, before he realize that Izana reminded everyone that the special Gauna seems to be partially cloaked from sensors.

Last movement shown was right on top of him. Tsuuruchi took a step back and turned on his headlamp, turning the light onto the ceiling. A purple gauna holding the ripped arm of a Guardian dropped on his mech. The pilot brought his mech's arm up in a cross block, taking a wrist blade through. He fired his head mounted Higgs cannon as he fell on his butt. The gauna did a backflip to avoid and kicked against the ceiling, landing on all four.

Tsuuruchi looked in disbelieve as the gauna pulled that human like movement. Copying a Guardian and jetting around one was thing. He turned on his leg jets and put as much distance as he could while he reloaded his SMG. The purple beast sprung towards him and closed the gap in no time.

Damage alert flashed brightly in his HUD as the mecha's head has pummeled into the ground again and again. With the purple gauna straddling him, Tsuuruchi had nowhere to run. He tried to aim his SMG at the gauna's head but all it did was pissed it off. Now the gauna was beating him with his torn off arm.

"Hull integrity at thirty percent!" A few more whack and the cockpit would be crushed. Tsuuruchi wondered will he die on impact or will he be so badass to be tentacle pulled barely alive out of the frame, athen he got to say a one liner and spit at the gauna.

"Let him go!"

Ahh, his knight in shining armor, coming to save his worthless butt before Tsuuruchi became gauna food. If given the choice he would take Samari but a giant alien girl is just as good right now, he wouldn't complain though, when the alternative is getting your face punched in and eaten alive.

The humanoid gauna rose to height still holding the airframe head's on one hand. Both Tsuuruchi and Tsumugi had a good look. Unlike Benizusume and other guardian type gauna who wore flesh like armor, this one had smooth, machined plates of armor covering its body. It got the face of a demon with pair of eyes that shone with gold and a single horn with the same length as its head.

What started as a mission with a high success rate goes to hell in an instance. Analyst at the bridge gasped with horror as they received the video feed from Tsuuruchi's unit. Gauna had evolved its threat over time, mostly from copying human strategy and weapons or improving on past weaknesses.

"Our scans shows the….new Guardian type gauna is covered in actual heavy metal plates stronger than husk material. We have no other Gauna matches in our databases."

Yuhata knew all the main gauna type with a threat level capable of defeating a Guardian. Did the Gauna developed this weapon from the defeat of Benisuzume? If those monsters are evolving so fast, Sidonia is so screwed royally.

"Its just one Gauna. Tsumugi, try to lure it out and team up with Nagate. Drill teams, continue with your mission." Yuhata was cautious here. The last Gauna superweapon did defeat Tsumugi due to her carelessness.

"Ma'am, permission to designate the new Gauna type as Horny One?" One young analyst suggested.

"Denied".

….

Tsuuruchi felt like he was shot through a railgun into the side of a moon. If he survived this, he would end up with a bunch of medical steel up his neck. Right now, he is living his dream, dying in the arms of a woman.

Tsumugi caught the airframe being thrown at her like a planetary buster missile. She heard her chest cracked as the impact throw both of them backward. She heal fast but it still hurt. The armored gauna was not going to let them go easily.

"I cannot escape with Tsuuruchi."

As soon as she put down the airframe, she lashes out with her claws. Tsumugi wanted to cut loose for a while now since her encounter with Benisuzume didn't go too smooth. This strong gauna would be the focus of her anger.

The horned gauna dodged every strike and eventually caught both of Tsumugi's wrist. She noticed this earlier, the peculiar habit of the gauna to stand on solid ground instead of flying. She tried to use this to her advantage and levitated closer to the cave ceiling, trying to slam the gauna. To her surprise her body was lifted at an angle, her legs pointed toward the ceiling no matter how much flight power she force out.

"Eh, the gauna wasn't flying on the opposite direction, how can it cancel out my pull?"

She saw a flash in its uncaring eye before she felt someone put an accelerator round through her face. The armored gauna pulled on her wrist and met her face with his. Cracks started to appear on her mask after a few more headbutt.

The scene at the battleroom got rowdy as the reserves shouted among themselves.

"Dammit, if I'm out there, like hell I would let that bastard do that to Tsumugi."

"Now they got headbutt, soon , they will have balls kicking. Its game over man, game over."

A moment of silence took them when the camera feed from Tsuruuchi moved.

….

The armored gauna stood still as a kabi blade pierced through where a human heart would be. Slowly the length of Tsumugi's tail lifted the gauna off his feet through the hole in its chest. The chimera girl held her head in both hands, blood dripping down her arms.

"You know girl, if you want to thank me, I'm still here, holding on to life until I get a wet sloppy kiss that last at least five minute, maybe more, to send me to the afterlife."

"This bastard….he messed up my face!"

"Okay…you take your time."

At Sidonia's bridge, the crew cheered too when they witnessed Tsumugi comeback. Still it was too early a victory as no true body foaming was detected. The gauna struggled and ripped the kabi blade from her tail end. Tsumugi didn't have a chance to retract her appendage as the gauna swung the blade at chest level, cutting a good piece of tail away.

She went wild with her claw attacks, not caring if she got hit just to get a swipe in. The humanoid gauna patiently took the attack, its armor on the forearm and abdomen tearing away from the furious attacks. When it saw a small opening, the purple gauna shot a spear finger at the chimera's neck.

Despite not requiring to breath, it still hurts a lot to have her neck punctured. The battle now turned around with the chimera girl on the defensive. The armored gauna took a human stance with a foot forward and both hands raised to guard the upper body and head.

The bridge looked in shock as the armored gauna delivered lightning fast kicks to the chimera. When a gauna engage its enemy, its to destroy or consume, sometimes both. There was no data that a gauna took pleasure in a fair battle or they just want to cause damage without killing its prey.

Yuhata cursed at the screen, despite having all the firepower of Sidonia at her disposal, she could do nothing for her friend down there. She watched as she took kicks to the rib that would cut a Guardian in half. She had no choice now, she had to send in Nagate. Its all or nothing.

"Give me status on the drill team now!" The mainscreen switched just before she saw Tsumugi tentacle dress get ripped to shreds.

….

Tsuruuchi couldn't feel his legs, hell he could barely feel his left arm, his so called golden arm. And its not because he use it to hold his cock. He got one shot to help out Tsumugi. Even if he manage to take the shot, a kabi blade through the chest couldn't defeat the gauna so it was slim chance he could do any damage. If he fail, he would annoy the armored gauna and get killed first.

"An awesome hero like me can't just watch a girl get killed without doing a thing."

The thing with gauna is that, despite the organic look and feel, they got almost none of the weakness of an organic being. The cranial system on a gauna, you can rip out its brain and spine and it would still tear you a new one because the arms and tentacle wasn't really controlled by the brain. But this armored gauna moved and acted, almost like a humanoid being. Maybe the gauna got ahead of itself and imitated human limitation too.

He overloaded the Higgs cannon for one decisive move. When the gauna stop for a split second, he would put a beam through its eye, the only part where its not protected and it's a direct path to the brain.

"Tsumugi!"

Holding the drill equipment like a lance, Nagate charged the armored gauna. Tsumugi moved out of his path and held the gauna down with her tail, as their enemy has proven to be very agile. The gauna was immobilized but still manage to catch the mining drill with his barehands. Sparks lit up the cave as the gauna held its ground.

This was the moment Tsuuruchi waited for, where the enemy puts all its focus on defense. A stream of overcharged Higgs particle beam pierced the gauna's eye. A moment of weakness was all Nagate required to pin his adversary against the cave wall. The pilot set his jets to maximum burn as he think of a method to defeat this monster. Sensor detects no true body on this gauna so he has to buy as much time as possible. The kabi blade should have caused serious damage if this happens to be a case of rogue placenta acting on its own but the armored gauna has proven to be really resilient against anti-gauna strategy.

Wait…what if this monster is not a gauna…

"Tsumugi, cut his face off!" Nagate asked her partner while he still push on with all the force the airframe gives.

"I was just thinking the same thing!" Tsumugi would have licked her lips if she had one. She needs to ask Tanikaze if he prefer her to have lips just in case he wanted to.."Ahh stop thinking such thoughts in the middle of battle."

She picked up the kabi blade she used earlier and threw herself at the armored gauna. Her foe stopped resisting against the drill and tried to raise his arm to stop her advance but she had a good start so she was faster. When she pierce the gauna's neck, she noticed some placenta flesh stuck to the back of its neck sizzled away. With no time to ponder on its importance, she press her other fist on the handle and turn the blade all the way across. The gauna's throat open up like a can of food. Red blood sprayed onto her face. Tsumugi tasted it; just like human blood.

Despite the injury, the gauna still struggled with all his might while Tanikaze's unit was pushed to the limit. The HUD told him the machine would overheat in less than a minute.

"Nagate, hang in there we're sending backups over." Samari called him.

The ace pilot activated all the manual override in his mecha to squeeze extra performance out of it. "Forget the backup, how fast can you take out the main gauna?"

"We got the mines in place, but you need to get out of the caves first. The whole thing will fall on you." Even as Samari said this, she could predict that Nagate was going to tell her he got something dangerous in mind.

"Don't worry about me; just detonate it now. Tanikaze out." The pilot checked his inventory for remaining weapons and fuel.

"Tsumugi, grab Tsuuruchi and give me some covering fire. I'm going to let go now."

His partner shoved Tsuuruchi into her abdomen reluctantly; she didn't like having another guy inside her. Tsumugi then picked up the railgun she left on the floor earlier. The very instance Tanikaze let go of the drill and fired his retro thrusters, she squeezed a few shot onto the gauna. The escaping mecha too unloaded all his submachine gun rounds and Higgs cannon while flying backwards. The monstrous gauna who was still momentarily pinned took all the firepower, while it pried the drill off his chest.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm sorry about the end of chapter 1, I just realized that I lost the longer version with more narration.

Basically, Nagate and Tsumugi escaped the cave network as it crumble around them while being chased by our favorite gauna-shogouki. As the main gauna body get destroyed, its control on shogouki ended, and thus Shinji was released. The team took him back to Sidonia as a placenta sample.

I probably would re-insert this scene as a flashback sometime.

If you guys got some Eva X sidonia ideas that you want to share, please do so. I would like to hear what's in the mind of fellow fans; how to meld these two shows together.

…. ….. … ….

"Dr Yure, the analysis is complete. The specimen captured by Tanikaze are hundred percent human DNA, save for an unidentified red core in his abdomen."

Izana's grandmother stared at the screen. A gauna in the form of a young boy, like Hoshijiro, lies on the floor of the containment cell alone. He held his arms close and whimpered a little as if he was cold. She turned on the communicator inside the cell.

"Please respond if you can hear me?"

The naked boy woke up and rubbed his eyes. He scanned his surroundings, a room as big as a tennis court, well lit, with a wall of glass facing him. The floor is freezing his feet off.

"Yes, may I know where I am?"

Dr Yure froze for a second there, before turning to the lab analyst.

"Get me the commander, now," Yure ordered.

…. ….. … ….

A week later…

"Congratulations, Shinji, you have finished the puzzle with remaining time of eight seconds."

Shinji slumped to the floor, he didn't know he would be pleased to hear the sweet robotic voice telling him of his success.

"Why don't you show a little more spirit?" The robotic arm with finger tips of lightning got dangerously close to his forehead.

Shinji moved on his butt and pushed himself back to get some safety. Electric shock is a good teacher. "Yay," he faked.

"Here comes the reward." The lighting in the cell was powered down, then a spotlight in the center appeared. Another robotic arm came from the ceiling carrying a small case with it.

Shinji approached it cautiously, having being told of a reward many times earlier only to find that it was not. He pressed a green switch and compressed gas escaped from the case. Inside was his salvation from cold, a set of beige military uniform similar to what the Nerv crew used to wear. One problem, it was a female uniform. Between embarassment and having his butt frozen, it was not much choice.

He looked at the sports bra for a moment, then to the robot arm, back at the sports bra. It was cold anyway, Shinji reasoned. He continued putting on the rest of the uniform, with the miniskirt as the last piece.

In the science lab where the experiment was being held, Dr Yure walked in and saw the whole dressing scene.

"Whats with the female uniform?" She asked the analyst.

"Surplus stock, maam."

…. ….. … ….

Back at Lala's kitchen, the occupants crowded over the dining table with Yuhata in the middle. Nagate, Izana and Tsumugi had their attention on the holo screen broadcasted by Yuhata's communicator. They had watched the stream of the experiment carried out on the gauna specimen for a while now.

"This is cruel, don't you think so, Tanikaze?" Tsumugi prodded the only male in the house.

Before Nagate could answer, the commander's aide chided.

"We are doing it for science. It's done for the good of humanity." She giggled as the specimen who call himself Shinji got zapped again for performing badly in a test.

"He's kind of cute though."

Izana gave her a disapproving look.

"For a monster."

Now she find herself stuck between Tsumugi and Izana. She closed the screen and held her hands to surrender.

"Ok, enough voyeurism for a day. Lets get some food."

"Even if we may not be able to get any closer to communicating with the gauna's, we can still accept him as part of Sidonia, I hope. He looks like a decent guy to me. Besides, Tsumugi is proof that we can coexist peacefully," Tanikaze finally had his chance to speak.

"Tanikaze…" Tsumugi swooned.

Commotion could be heard outside the cafeteria. Nagate and friends, minus Tsumugi rushed out to check what it was all about. They found an unruly mob barging into the academy area carrying pickets, lead by a man with long blond hair carrying a loud speaker.

"Stop resisting us, we already have over fourty eight thousands signature. Before the night is over, we would have a representative to check on the welfare of our honored alien guest. And the world will know if the military has treated him with the full privilege of an ambassador of the Gauna race. "

"Hail our new alien overlord!" His followers chanted.

"You guys can't hold your rally here, it's a military zone!" The few guards who were severely outnumbered by the mob shouted back futilely. With less than a dozen of them against this crowd of five hundred at least, they don't want to escalate the situation.

"Open your eyes and see for yourself. Heaven has sent its messenger to us. Your days of fighting is over. We can finally walk hand in hand with our gauna overlords towards an era of everlasting peace. You don't have to serve those immortals; to do their selfish biddings anymore."

A senior figure among the guards stepped forward. "Shut it, Kensuke. We had captured placental specimen before this and you know of it. The gauna can copy the human form, and they are just repeating the process. This is no difference."

"Your immoral superior is just withholding information. Go forth and challenge them; does your latest gauna specimen not speak the language of human perfectly? Does he not practice manners just like a civilized human would be?"

The group of pro-Gauna activist got louder with various other accusation, from draconic laws forbidding specific acts of debauchery to lowering the requirement to get a law passed. The leader, Kensuke seems pleased with himself.

"Among the soldiers, they are those that stand with us, yet their voice silenced. Today we give them a reason to speak out."

He drove the crowd to a crescendo , but never actually uttering the word 'charge' himself. That would run afoul of some archaic seditious law. It was best to leave the dangerous acts to the mob while he grabbed the limelight. He smiled as his followers run pass the weak human fence made up by the military guards.

"Whoa, look at that group of hot pink haired clones. Let's get their signatures!"

Ren wind up her fist of death and put it through a tablet, not slowing down a bit, into the face of a slightly obese male activist. He fell onto the concrete; arms wide spread still holding tight to his electronic device and a stylus on another. His other co-activist stopped in their track, not knowing what to do next. If they approached the clone soldiers to retrieve their fallen, they might get their face stomped too.

"He walked into my fist, I didn't do anything. You all saw that right, sisters?"

Ren lead her group towards Nagate and his friends, taking the shortest path; right over the body of the fat activist. A dozen feet made cushion out of human flesh. The remaining activist made way for the Honoka sisters as they freely walked away.

"Hey, is that dude having an erection? What a deviant…" a grossed out activist pointed out.

Further away, Nagate found himself surrounded by a group of pro-gauna advocates, Izana and Yuhata stood by his side protecticely. They were calling him the number one alien, synthetics and transsexual sympathizer in Sidonia and wanted Nagate to be their poster boy in the military to support their cause.

"Who the hell are you calling a transsexual?!" Izana spun her 10 fingered hand into a drill.

"Sir Tanikaze, your support to our cause will bring us to new heights. Your relationship with our princess Tsumugi is what we tell our kids for bedtime stories, and for those without kids, we just bore the hell out of our relatives and friends with steamy tales of human and alien romance."

"Princess Tsumugi?" Tanikaze mumbled, the first time he ever heard this label given to his friend. He wanted to follow up with what sort of totally fictional story they were talking about him and Tsumugi.

"So if you would be so kind to help us out, and we utmost believe that you will, please just sign here."

The unshaven man with checkered shirt motioned his right hand, but it just wouldn't budge. He wasn't even aware that his wrist was locked tightly behind his back. He wanted to turn his body around only to find himself kissing the floor.

"Did you see how he tried to reach backwards and grope me?" Ren cheerfully said.

Izana and Yuhata stared in horror at the random act of violence. Maybe not Izana because she was used to punching Nagate through walls.

"There Nagate, a few more like this and we can call it even." Ren flipped her hair and propped one feet on the head of the pro-gauna guy.

"It's nothing, really." The only male pilot in the group rubbed the back of his head, counting his luck that he was not the target of asskicking this time.

…. ….. … ….

"What do you think Ochiai?"

Commander Kobayashi's bodyguard stepped toward to his master, floating in her luxurious personal chamber.

"The most likely scenario would be specimen Shinji being the gauna latest attempt at anti-human superweapon. Those monsters made the perfect human to date - to infiltrate our rank, using the sum memories of all humanity who was consumed, and altered it according to their needs. He appears cooperative right now, but once he gained our trust, he would reveal his true nature. "

"I asked for your opinion, not what I'm thinking," the commander replied, her tone was not of anger but amusement that her confidante would be so close to her thoughts.

"I'm very keen on Dr Yure's theory. Some other seedship or according to her even more far fetched story, another branch of human species took root on a far away planet. In their war against gauna, they developed this humanoid mecha based weapon specializing in close quarter combats. We don't know much about the gauna except for their weakneses to kabi, but we have determined that the gauna's are capable of information transfer.

My take is that gauna forces consumed this weapon and its pilot, possibly also named Shinji, and repurpose it to their end. Deploying the armored gauna in a cramped fighting space seems consistent with their ever improving tactics against our weapon.

On the aspect of developing a weaponized human, capable of communicating in our language and with a consistence memory, it's too huge a jump from what we have observed with placental Hoshijiro.

The lack of a standard true body, instead replaced with a red core, lend some weight to this theory. He could be a chimera developed by other seedship, although his story insist that he wasn't living in an advance space faring age. "

Ochiai paused for a moment.

"Yes, I would prefer to believe that our gauna specimen could be benevolent to Sidonia."

"Didn't know you're such a romantic. I want this thing fighting for me…for humanity cause. What of his relationship with the armored gauna?" Kobayashi floated down as the artificial light slowly dimmed.

Ochiai carefully dressed his master, his fingers deftly avoided touching parts which would be impolite.

"Dr Yure has no conclusive evidence yet due to the specimen's completely new biological construct. However, she believes that the red core is capable of energy to mass conversion. The specimen has withstood all physical stimuli without turning violent. Therefore she was lead to believe the trigger to be a psychological one."

…. ….. … ….

This was the third week Shinji stayed in his cell…

"So when can I get out from this cell? I have done all your test, answered all your questions. What else do you need from me?"Shinji asked the disembodied voice who had been his only companion for all his duration in the cell. He didn't even know how long he was here. He fell asleep for perhaps ten times, maybe a week plus he guessed.

"No Shinji, there is one last thing you need to do before you can meet me." The robot arm wagged a finger, her tone sinister.

"What can I do for you?" Shinji pleaded. Any extra time spent in the cell is slowly driving him insane.

"Listen carefully, the world you know of….has ceased to exist. The evil race of Gauna destroyed earth five thousand years ago. And you Shinji, is the last human survivor."

Shinji fell to his knees and screamed the classic. "Nooooo!"

"That's not true, you said you're a doctor and I should trust you. Wait, if I'm the last human survivor, why did you put me through all that torture test?"

"You got me. I'm not really a doctor. I'm just an artificial intelligence designed to keep the last human alive no matter the cost. Let's get back to business shall we? I need to retrieve a sperm sample."

The metal arm made a vertical grip with its fist and pumped it rapidly while slowly advancing toward Shinji's groin. The boy ran around the room while screaming "Gotta run away" repeatedly.

In the lab's control room, an analyst laughed maniacally as she operated a joystick to chase her experiment subject around. Her hand roamed the console looking for something fun to press, and she found one 'Phaser set to frag.'

A gloved hand caught her wrist before she can press it.

Dr Yure glared at the spectacled girl looking so small next to Ochiai. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Extracting sperm sample, maam?"

"We already have all the fluid analysis done two days ago."

"I was thinking, maybe if we extract it through the manual way. Then we let the juice get exposed to air and artificial sunlight, it could have a different result. This is gauna sperm we are talking about, it could turn into something super for all we know."

Yure eyed the badge on the girl. "Dr Taki, Phd in Hygiene Science. Sanitory Department."

"Ochiai, get her the hell out of here."

…. ….. … ….

In the research lab of Toha industry, Tanba slowly moved away from the very irate Sasaki who was arguing with Nagate regarding some customization. The old engineer waved his hand and shooed away other engineers in the area, leaving the two alone.

"Stop asking me to do the impossible already!"

"But captain Kobayashi said I can talk to you directly regarding customization."

She pointed at the holoscreen showing a particularly savage attack by the armored gauna launching a well executed round house kick to Tsumugi's head.

"That kick has equivalent destructive force of a meteorite-class mine. We don't have that technology to make such powerful actuator for Guardian limbs yet. And even if we did, the cost would be so exorbitant high that we would rather just up-armor all existing unit with megastructure plates."

"We already fought two gauna which excelled at close quarter combat. Who to say that we wouldn't encounter more of it. We need to be prepared," Nagate countered.

"And then what, all of you guys just drop your guns and start brawling with gaunas? Our strategy had always placed emphasize on long range weapons. The reason is that your average pilots, no matter how much time and resources we throw at them, they couldn't dodge a tentacle whiplash. Blowing so much resources on one unit so some guy could have a macho duel is a giant waste."

"I'm trying to save lives here."

"And whose life is that? Your girlfriend?"

Sasaki was shocked that such word could came off her mouth too. She really has to keep that temper in check. There are many things which couldn't be fixed with engineering expertise.

"Hey, why don't you go check out the simulator, we got some new melee weapon patched in. Just come back a week later, I might have something for you. It's not like I don't want to see gauna's getting their face caved in." Sasaki closed the conversation with a mellow tone.

Nagate thanked her, bowed slightly and left her lab. When the pilot left her sight, Sasaki's huge wrench ricochet across the wall only to fall to the lower deck hitting some poor souls.

…. ….. … ….

Note: If you read chapter 1 in its messy state, I'm sorry. I added the" … …"scene change. Still getting used to after such a long time.


End file.
